At various times of your day you may find yourself feeling low on energy and having a difficult time focusing. It may be the time you usually reach for that cup of coffee, or the snack, but you have a tool within you that can get you back on track without going to the kitchen or breakroom.
The single best way to fight fatigue and boost your energy is by deepening your breath.
The natural reaction when we are stressed or busy taking care of daily life activities is we take shallow and quick breaths. When our bodies have insufficient oxygen, our energy levels our lowered resulting in feeling tired and rundown.
The breath is both a voluntary and involuntary action, so we can teach ourselves how to take deeper breaths to help increase oxygen levels, lower blood pressure and increase our energy.
Practicing the Three-Part Breath, otherwise known as the Deerga Breath, is a great way to train the body to deepen the breath.
- To begin, come to a straight spine, and invite the shoulders to drop down and back. This opens the chest to allow the breath to move more freely through the body. If you would like support for your back, sit in a straight back chair, against the wall or this breath can be done lying down.
- Place one hand on your belly. Breathing in through the nostrils, fill your belly with breath and notice as your hand moves as your belly expands. Exhale, sending the breath out through the nostrils. As the breath leaves the belly, notice the belly emptying and the hand falling. Repeat this for a few breaths.
- Place your other hand on your ribcage. As you breathe in through the nostrils, fill the belly with breath and then continuing the inhale, send the breath up into your ribcage. Feel both the belly and the ribcage expand, and the hands move. When ready to exhale, let the breath leave the ribcage, then the belly. Repeat this for a few breaths
- Take the hand from your belly and place it on your chest. As you take the breath in, feel the belly expand, then the ribcage and then continuing to inhale feel the breath move to the chest and feel it expand. As the breath releases, watch as it leaves the chest, then the ribcage and followed by the belly. Repeat this for a few breaths.
- Now that you are familiar with the breath, you can choose to let your hands rest in your lap as you observe the breath move through the three areas, the belly, the ribcage and the chest. Fill the entire body with a wave of breath, and then watch as the wave rolls back out.
As you continue to practice the Deerga Breath you may find that you naturally begin to take deeper breaths. During the day, when you feel low on energy or are feeling a bit stressed, turn to your Deerga Breath for a natural pick-me-up.
Share a comment with me below on how this breath made you feel.
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